I’m in a somewhat unique position in which I love the film Alien, but I think everything after and the lore it’s creating is garbage. I also generally don’t like survival horror games. These two facts speak a lot towards the overall quality of Alien Isolation when I say that it might have been my favorite game of 2014.

Following Amanda Ripley as she tries to track down her missing mother (so the game takes place between Alien and the sequel Aliens), she inevitably encounters the xenomorphs herself on a decommissioned space station, Sevastopol. An explosion causes her and her team to get separated as well as knocks their own ship away, forcing them to try and regroup and find another way off the station. After a couple of hours of suspenseful build up, you learn why everyone you encounter is on edge. An alien is on board and reeking havoc!

Story-wise, it’s fairly simplistic. It borrows much from the first two movies. The early stages are suspenseful as you build toward the inevitable arrival of the alien, who will stalk and haunt you the rest of the game. During this period, your guard isn’t quite totally up despite knowing what’s coming. Sure, there are a few people you need to get by, but overall this is the least stressful part of the game.

Eventually you discover the alien, and that once again, “the company” had been trying to capture these aliens. Even more, you eject the alien off the ship only to have more return, then blow them up, then have one more “turns out they’re not dead” moment. In terms of plot, the game is pretty predictable and doesn’t deviate from the original film or its sequel.  I mean, in the five things – movies and this game – they beat the aliens by ejecting them into space five times! (Twice in this game, really!) Can they just not figure out alternative ways to stop them?

Not everything about staying the same is terrible though. The first thing you notice is how true to the visual style of the original the game appears. Everything has that old fashioned futuristic look. Computers require a couple of seconds, complete with a load bar. The doors slowly open after sensing motion. The corridors are long and narrow. The fluorescent lights help add to the atmosphere. Overall, it looks like Alien. It is great!

Even more, the basic gameplay also captures the feel of the original film. Instead of playing as colonial marines, coming in guns blazing with a fighting chance, you play as Amanda Ripley, just a normal woman in over her head. The fact that you can’t kill the alien and it doesn’t take much to injure you creates a tense atmosphere in which you don’t want to encounter things. A lot of horror games tend to veer off more into the action realm, giving you a fighting chance against the monsters. It’s one way to do it, but this way has you edging around corners and spending a lot of time hiding in closets or under tables the moment you hear something!

Ripley – like her mother – is a survivor. She’s also crafty and will gather materials for items. You can build med kits, pipe bombs, EMP bombs, or Molotovs to help you survive. You can even create distractions with flares or noise makers. These items generally help in most situations, though you probably won’t be using pipe bombs or EMPs on the alien. In a sense, it plays a bit like a first person The Last of Us. Crafting items happens in real time, so you’ll want to find a dark or hidden place to do it. Plus, there’s the whole cat and mouse, stealth element.

The sound and lightning further adds to the environment, which already feels claustrophobic. Music plays when enemies are nearby, providing further cues to go along with your motion tracker. Flickering lights, flashing emergency lamps, and poorly lit areas all cause you to second guess if you saw something move or not. The first person perspective also does much to create the tension, especially when climbing through vents or up and down ladders. Additionally, accessing computer terminals or utility systems keeps your focus on the object, giving you limited mobility to see your surroundings.

Sometimes the game isn’t exactly clear on what to do or how to play, but it also isn’t terribly confusing. The maps are huge, but pretty straight forward. (Seriously, look at the full map of Sevastopol to get a sense of the space station’s size.) It’s broken down into smaller sub-maps, so it’s easy to handle and navigate. Well, outside of having to take note of hiding spots for when the alien inevitably drops down on you. Something else kind of strange is that in the first act of the game, they utilize cutscenes from time to time. By half way through the game though, they completely abandon it.

It’s a well designed game that really feels like the sequel Alien deserved. No, it’s not perfect. And yes, the ending will probably infuriate you. Still, everything works together well and they create such a tense, terrifying environment. It really makes you feel like you’re in the movies. And it turns out, I am not a survivor like Ripley…